Video: Ambika Mod shares her life lessons
When Netflix finally dropped the hotly anticipated One Day, their ‘note-perfect’ adaptation of David Nicholls's much-beloved 2009 novel, it was almost guaranteed to be a hit. Dexter and Emma’s beautifully crafted love story was always bound to intrigue, but it was the show’s lead pair – and Ambika Mod’s nuanced and droll take on the bookish and sarcastic Emma in particular, that launched the actress into mainstream consciousness – and saw her awarded Best Breakthrough at Harper's Bazaar's 2024 Women of the Year ceremony.
Mod’s masterful commandment of the source material made it hard to believe it was her first time ever leading a television show – but it was actually her earlier work, playing on-edge medic Shruti Acharya in This Is Going To Hurt, that Mod credits for changing her career trajectory.
“I wanted to act when I was really little without any reason why,” she tells Harper’s Bazaar in the latest episode of our Life Lessons video series. “As I got older, in my teens, I just accepted that it was never going to be my path, and that it was never really going to happen for me. People who looked like me were never really on TV. It was always a bit of a pipe dream.”
It was when she studied at Durham University that Mod, now 29, started to flirt with the idea of being on stage, where she started writing and performing comedy. “For several years, that was what I was pursuing. I loved it so much and I thought that was going to be my career. But my creative life, when I did This Is Going To Hurt, took a turn,” she explains.
“I guess I found acting again, but I wasn’t actively looking for it and I guess that was the way it was always meant to go. I think for me, that was the best way that it could have happened. I don’t think going to drama school would have been right for me.”
Suddenly being so well-known in such a short space of time had its shortcomings. The increasingly toxic nature of fandom, when coupled with the ease of anonymous trolling on social media, has seen Mod exposed to unwarranted and unnecessary negativity. Mod can recall her first piece of unjustified criticism – a barbed comment about her demeanour on Twitter after she appeared on Channel 4’s Sunday Brunch.
“They wrote: ‘I seemed nice but I had no je ne sais quoi’. It was a dagger to the heart…that took me two days to get over,” she confesses. “I think over time, you learn to let those things have less of an impact. I’ve tried to apply a similar rule that I used when I did comedy. Whenever I did a bad gig, I’d give myself that night to be down about it, and as soon as I woke up the next day, I had to forget about it and move on.”
Mod adds that she no longer even bothers to listen to the sentiments of those who aren’t even in the acting industry. “I’m not interested in the opinions of keyboard warriors at home who think I’m ugly or whatever,” she says. “That’s just not relevant to me or my life.”
But there are upsides after appearing in some of TV’s biggest and best-loved dramas, and Mod is thrilled to be the representation for others that she never saw growing up. “It’s not something that I have actively sought to achieve, but the response I get from women of colour, especially young brown girls, is really overwhelming,” she explains. “You forget how rare it is for someone like me to be in a position like this. With One Day, I thought it was a silly will-they-won’t-they romance where we could all have a bit of fun, but what I didn’t expect was the response from young brown women, and how much it inspired and empowered them. That was really special to learn.”
One Day - David Nicholls
Mod has plenty more coming up, with her next lead role in the Disney+ series Playdate alongside Holliday Grainger. With far more eyes eagerly watching her career following the mammoth triumph that One Day was, one might assume that Mod may be feeling the pressure to maintain the same trajectory when it comes to her work. However, she believes her definition of success has changed as she has gotten older.
“You can go after a goal and you can achieve it, and then you’ll find there’s another thing, another goal to reach,” she says. “The grind can almost feel never-ending and it can feel like there’s always one more thing to achieve, or one more thing to get to, especially in this industry where I know I am very quick to compare myself to other people.
“I’m trying to define success on my own terms. I want to really enjoy my job and spend time with people I love and have a nice life. If I can look back on my deathbed and I’ve done all that, then that would have been successful to me.”
She adds jokingly: “But also I want to host SNL one day, so swings and roundabouts.”
Attitudes towards success are not the only thing Mod has reconsidered as she’s advanced in her years; she’s also changing her approach to fashion and style. “I’ve become really conscious about what I’m wearing and what I’m buying,” she says. “Last year I set myself the challenge of creating for myself a capsule wardrobe. I recycled and sold a bunch of clothes I wasn’t wearing regularly and started investing in really sustainable pieces that would last me a long time.
“I do think it’s important to be conscious of where your fashion comes from and I’ve tried really actively to stop buying fast fashion. It’s a privilege to even say that but if that is an option available to you, then you should try and commit to that as much as possible.”
However, there is one thing Mod has remained consistent about throughout her stratospheric rise to fame.
“I am a skincare fiend,” she says, laughing. “I had really bad acne as a teenager, as so over the years I’ve tried anything and everything. Like with style, I’ve learned less is more.
“I’ve said it 100 times before and I’ll say it 100 times again to anyone who will listen – wear sunscreen! Even if it’s cold outside! Wear sunscreen. If you want the best goddamn skin of your life, slap on that SPF50 every damn day. You will not regret it, I’m telling you.”
Watch the full Life Lessons video with Ambika Mod, above.
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